


Torch of the Night

by Abby_Ebon



Series: It's Not A Rabbit Hat [61]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-16 14:57:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/863314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abby_Ebon/pseuds/Abby_Ebon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karasu Kagami's prompt: A Percy Jackson crossover with Harry as a child of Hecate and/or Thanatos depending on your preference, who is Percy's 'father figure'. As they're 'lesser' gods they're children wouldn't be very well known but powerful none the less. If they're both his parents that makes him a god in his own right and an unknown god could change everything. As for being Percy's 'dad'...I just want to see Poseidon and the rest's faces. XD</p>
            </blockquote>





	Torch of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Orphica, Argonautica 12 ff (trans. West) (Greek epic C4th to C6th A.D.) :
> 
> "Firstly, ancient Khaos's (Air's) stern Ananke (Inevitability), and Khronos (Time), who bred within his boundless coils Aither (Light) and two-sexed, two-faced, glorious Eros [Phanes], ever-born Nyx's (Night's) father, whom latter men call Phanes, for he first was manifested."
> 
> Orphic, Theogonies Fragments 101 - 102 (from Proclus) :
> 
> "[Phanes] placed his distinguished sceptre [the rulership of the universe] in the hands of goddess Nyx (Night), that she hold royalty . . . [Nyx] holding in her hands the glorious sceptre of Erikepaios [Phanes]."
> 
> Hesiod, Theogony 211 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
> 
> "And Nyx bare hateful Moros (Doom of Death) and black Ker (Fate of Death) and Thanatos (Death), and she bare Hypnos (Sleep) and the tribe of Oneiroi (Dreams). And again the goddess murky Nyx, though she lay with none, bare Momos (Criticism) and painful Oizys (Misery), and the Hesperides (Evenings) . . . Also she bare the Moirai (Fates) and the ruthless avenging Keres (Deaths) . . . Also deadly Nyx bare Nemesis to afflict mortal men, and after her, Apate (Deceit) and Philotes (Sex) and hateful Geras (Old Age) and hard-hearted Eris (Strife)."
> 
> Bacchylides, Fragment 1b (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
> 
> "Torch-bearing Hekate, . . [missing text] holy . ., daughter of great-bosomed Nyx (Night)."
> 
> Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 5. 1 :
> 
> "They [the people of Smyrna] believe in two Nemeses instead of one; they say Nyx was their mother."
> 
> Orphica, Theogonies Fragments (from the Deveni Papyrus) :
> 
> "Zeus, when from his father the prophesied rule and strength in his hands he took and the glorious daimon . . . . the god [Phanes] who first sprang forth into the Aither (Light).  
> Kronos who did a mighty deed to Ouranos (Sky), son of Nyx (Night), who became king first of all; following him again Kronos (Time), and then Zeus the contriver."
> 
> Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 498 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
> 
> "He [Orpheus] sang of . . . how, in the beginning, Ophion and Eurynome, daughter of Okeanos, governed the world from snow-clad Olympos; how they were forcibly supplanted, Ophion by Kronos, Eurynome by Rhea; of their fall into the waters of Okeanos; and how their successors ruled the happy Titan gods."
> 
> (Daeira is a name which means "knowing one" is an epithet of Hecate. With Hermes – who is often identified with Thanatos – this Daeira had a child called Eleusis. About Ophion, no one knows who his parents were. His name means "serpent".)

A prophesy rings in the ears of Poseidon, and the oath he swore between Hades and Zeus rings in his ears, mockingly. As his thoughts go to her, he sees her, as the sea that washes up and down the beach, brown hair loose and wild, as willful as the sea itself. Her eyes are kind and green, but her hand touches her navel and he knows she thinks of him.

Poseidon must protect her, no, _them_. She will have his child, his only half-mortal child in hundreds of years. To do such a thing against his brother's backs, he must have help. Help he can turn to in such a time as this are goddesses, his sisters. Hera he does not linger a moment upon, for she is more Zeus's wife and sister than his own. Hestia might already know, for every fire in every home is her eyes and ears. Yet she is pure and Poseidon knows that his broken oath will shame her.

That leaves him Demeter to turn to, his sister who has had Zeus's daughter and his own, yet had loved such mortal men as Iasion and Karmanor and had birthed them children. Demeter, she who is the only one whom their mother Rhea will still speaks sense to, and who best knows the favor of Cybele.

Poseidon goes to where the cliffs hang over the sea, a looming threat, and calls his sister's name. She steps from the rocks as if she had been hiding in a cave there all along.

"Whatever are you doing, Poseidon - howling so for me?" Her look is worried, despite her teasing words, and he can't help but tell her everything, the name of the mortal he loves – Sally Jackson, the name she picked out for their son – a name his son will share with one of Zeus's, but a worthy name all the same.

He's confessed everything and his heart is hammering at what she might do or say, he fears her – fears she can break him the one way or another. Demeter shakes her rich hair and looks to where the mortals can not see, and half-bloods do not dare. Where the mist of Khaos bleeds from, where Oceanus and the realm of Hades meet.

Demeter takes his hand in hers, and together they go into there.

Poseidon finds his feet on an island once called Blessed, and knows where he is and who Demeter has taken him to meet. It will be their first, and Poseidon comes like a beggar, asking for favors.

Yet he whom they have come to see knows what Poseidon's intentions truly are, and no gods as young as he and Demeter can not hide them. They are as obvious as fireflies in the dark.

"Do you really think, son of Kronos, I will help you?" If Poseidon can be called an elder god, than this one is ancient. It surprises him that the god did not have the amber eyes of his father Thanatos; they were brilliant green, like all healthy growing living things and the emeralds beneath the earth or the sea as it was under the summer sun.

It was irony, Poseidon thought, to liken those eyes to life, his father being what he was - a death god, kinder then his black hearted sister Ker, and with none of the deceit of Moros, yes, but still deadly. This god had probably called those most awful deities his _aunties_ and _uncles_ , and smiled while saying it.

Poseidon does not –dares not -meet those green eyes again, looking to his sister who stands calmly at his side, steady as the rocks from which she was named. Demeter has bowed her wreathed head, her hair richly dressed up in ringlets, she has put on her best appearance and he thinks they will need every inch of it for a bit of good.

"It is I who asks you to help me, Eleusis. Have I not honored your name?" Demeter's Mysteries surround this green eyed god; it is the name she gave him. He tilts his head, listening to a goddess where he would ignore a god. It comes, is Poseidon's thought, from the fact that his mother is Hecate and how that goddess loves her mother Nyx.

Poseidon takes that thought and quickly shakes it aside, for with it comes a vision of Eleusis in two forms, one male and one female, just as his most primeval ancestor and the first and greatest ruler of the whole universe had. If Phanes speaks, it is only likely to Nyx's children. Poseidon would be sick with fear if ever he heard that voice.

"That you have, Demeter and your daughter has ever been a comfort to my mother." In the darkness, something mantles, rises and shifts. Eleusis does not stand, he is seated before them like the king he was meant to be, but what Poseidon glimpses are a trait only the true children of Nyx have, wings, wide and dark.

In the shadows they are the purest black, but Poseidon has seen the wings of Thanatos spread protectively and knows in those feathered depths must be blue and purples alike after the sun has set and Hemera and Nyx meet in the island of the Hesperides.

"I am pleased that is still so." Demeter hears the slide of scales upon stone, as the god she calls Eleusis moves, but all others with contempt call him Ophion.

"You do not fear prophesy, as we do. Yet you must know the vow my brothers took…" Eleusis spits and it is with no small amount of contempt. Demeter pauses, wary to continue without a word spoken to reassure her of her welcome. Eleusis has made for himself a paradise upon the island that traps him beside the borders of Lethe and Oceanus, and no one begrudges the name of the place to be Elysian.

"The promises your brothers make, Demeter are already broken – aye – even before the birth of this boy of Poseidon. What prophesy would not make mockery of oath breakers?" Demeter inhales, but does not dare deny it.

"The boy is innocent!" Poseidon argues, stepping forward and stopping suddenly – realizing what he's done. Low laughter rises out of the darkness.

"Your blood is _innocent_ , is it, little sea god?" He has no feet, no legs, but a serpent's tail golden with glints of green and bronze scales going up and down until his waist. The belt about his waist drapes woven silver and gold where that joining meets, and Poseidon does not want to know if there is something that hides between. His skin is like ivory, pale and shining, with vines of hot melted gold lying underneath. It looks like something caved rather than bone and flesh and skin. The old ones, Poseidon had forgotten, look nothing like them, look like nothing _human_.

His hair is wild and black, like that of Thanatos and his grandmother Nyx, but that hair and those wings are the only sign of their hot gold blood beating within him. The brilliant green eyes fix on him, and do not let him look away.

"Your brother made my _wife_ Eurynome drink Lethe's stream, to forget me – to forget she had been queen at my side, is she _happy_ sea god? What of those three lovely daughters that you call Kharis? Are they mine, or his?" Eleusis asks the last softly, in a hiss. Poseidon stands beside him, and knows he is small and young.

"Peace, Eleusis! Please, you can not say that of all goddesses upon Olympus the Kharis are not well loved, and love us in turn!" Demeter interrupts, when it is clear that Poseidon does not know how to begin to answer. Green eyes close and let the sea god go. When they open, Demeter sees herself standing in the center of them.

"Would you have me look after this child for the sake of my children?" It sickens her, that Eleusis would think such a thing of them. Demeter knows where it comes from, the doings of the brothers and sisters of Kronos had so sickened the brothers and sisters of Ouranos that in their shock they had let go of the earth and heaven, slipping so deeply into their natures that they are now rarely glimpsed.

What had happened before the birth of Hestia, eldest of Zeus's siblings, was still a deep hurt and shock to those primeval ones, those ancient gods who had lived so long that millenniums had passed and they still mourned that Ouranos had been blooded so deeply he slept still and did not wake.

Ophion and Eurynome had alone had faced Kronos and Rhea as king and queen when they four had wrestled the whole universe would have shaken apart, but the god before had seen it, and let himself be beaten; had let his wife be taken, along with the world.

"No, Eleusis. It is only…please, that prophesy speaks of sleep, and Hypnos is your father's twin brother. He would not do such to you against your will." The green eyed god stifles a laugh. Poseidon sees him shake his head and turn back to his throne like seat; three legged and made of the dust of stars.

"What makes you think I want to save Olympus?" Eleusis turns his back upon them, unafraid.

" _You_ made Olympus, you founded it and built it to watch over the world – and in the end, and _you chose_ it to be greater than yourself. Olympus – this world – is _your legacy_ , so, please – at least tell me if my son is the one who must make such a choice to save Olympus or raze it!" Poseidon dares to walk behind in that god's footsteps and put his hand on the warm ivory shoulder and turn him about to look him in the eye, face to face.

Eleusis hisses and Poseidon sees his teeth are sharp and white. It takes him time to understand that the hiss wasn't a threat, but a word, the likes of its language hadn't been spoken since the blood of Ouranos spilled over the world.

Eleusis had said, _yes_. Poseidon knows there is no colder glacier than the unseen one which strikes him then, which can drown him, freeze him – the god of the sea!

"Please." Poseidon digs his fingers into that shoulder, now burning to the touch – yet within the sea god all is cold and dark and alone. He feels as if nothing will matter if Eleusis doesn't help him – them all.

" _Please_ , help my son." Eleusis inhales, as if surprised. Poseidon knows whose son he is, Kronos had swallowed all his children – all but Zeus – and that had changed and shaped them all, they had been born twice, and all the weaker morally for it.

"As you ask, grandson of Ouranos, my mother's brother. So it shall be." Eleusis raises his wings and it's as if he shrugs, and most of what he is falls away. There is a boy under the hand of Poseidon, and he has wild black hair and brilliant green eyes and wings, but his skin is tender and delicate looking...almost, too human.

"What will you call yourself?" Demeter asks, for she thinks the form is familiar to her.

"My mother Hecate woke me by breeding witches and wizards, my siblings as I think of them one and all, she put my sleeping form in this body – and when I fulfilled a prophesy and died to live, I woke with that…death…so I will call myself Harry Potter again." Harry shrugs away the hand of Poseidon, and after making a mantle of his wings, he's gone. There are only feathers between the sea god's fingers.

Demeter looks once at them, and smiles only once at her brother's confusion. Eleusis had no more been trapped here than they are now, he simply seemed not to have another – better - place to be, or go.

"If I were you brother, I would keep those feathers close. If he likes you enough to let you keep a part of him, it is likely you will need his help again." Poseidon does not question his elder sister's words, though he wants to ask so many of the questions he thinks – he just doesn't know how to choose just one at a time.

Demeter takes his hands in hers, and they each go to where they are needed most.

0o0o0

"Ms Jackson?" Sally has great hopes for the room she's put up for rent in the three bedroom house that she can barely afford on her own. It's more important that such a roommate be mortal, because her son isn't. Sally Jackson takes one look at the smiling golden skinned youth at the door, with his black hair and bright green and knows she is looking at a god.

He's got a sweet smile, but there is something about him that makes her skin chill, and it isn't the surprise at seeing him. Sally has seen gods and goddesses strolling down the street and the beach, some of them aren't Greek. Sally sees them then, the wings, feathers of blue and purple and black, and twice as long as he is tall. He presses them against his back like a cloak. If she could not see beyond the Mist, she might be fooled into thinking them only a black robe or cloak or coat.

She should shut the door, but that would be rude and it isn't a good idea to be rude to any kind of god. She lets him in, and hopes that he will go when she asks. She offers her hand, and he takes it as if he's never greeted someone by handshake, and lets her grip his hand tight in warning, and shake it. His smile doesn't shift off his face.

"Poseidon asked a favor of me, madam. Do you know he once bedded my mother? I do not think that Skylla has spoken to either of them since she found out she was not Phorkys's daughter. She's been all rending claws and monstrous teeth since. She'll only bother with her sister Kharybdis who's quite the furious whirlpool all on her own, yes, and the two make quite a dangerous pair. So you might say I'm family already. I will let no harm come to him. You can call me…Harry, yes, Harry Potter." Those bright green eyes look about the living room, with its blue shag carpet, and pictures of the sea. What he thinks of what he sees is plain upon his face, amusement and a rough sort of kindness. Sally thinks he likes it, that she doesn't sweep everything away that reminds her of her son's father.

Sally wonders just who his mother is, for she can't remember who Skylla's mother is supposed to be.

"With all due respect…Harry? I can't let you stay here, I need money, and you – being what you are – can't produce money from nothing without raising suspicions." Harry's lips quirk, and he shakes his head at her assumption. She hopes he's not related to Midas, but thinks he might be.

"I wasn't raised among the immortals you know, though I am more of the blood of the primeval deities than Poseidon. I thought myself mortal, until I found I did not die and after, when I might think myself crazy, I did not age any. The wings came after my mother visited me on the last day of what I think of as a…mortal life. Until that time I worked; I had a job, and an inheritance I can still claim from, so I assure you I can pay without making something from nothing." Percy comes into the living room, all of three and as protective of her as a toddler can be, and he sees the black wings which Harry has – for she has no other name for him, and if that's the name he wants her to use, she'll use it until he tells her another.

Percy turns wide eyes to his mother's and she smiles out of more courage than anything. Harry's wings rise and sink, a shrug, as if he doesn't know what to do with them. He isn't used to anyone being able to see them, isn't used to thinking of them, and now there are two people who see them and judge him for his wings.

"Percy, this is Harry, say hello, he's thinking of renting the third bedroom." Sally sees that Percy isn't frightened, not really, just conflicted.

"Mom, _how_ did he get those wings? Can I have some?" Percy doesn't doubt that Sally sees them, just the same as he does, and Sally wonders what would happen if she was someone who couldn't see past the Mist. Harry kneels next to her little boy, taking in the sight of him in. A small smile still lingers on his lips. His black wings lift protectively, and Percy stares up at them with wide awed eyes.

"They…run in my side of the family, you might say, it's a family you share with me. Would you like to learn more?" Percy is a little boy, _her_ little boy, a toddler, but he'll be more than that one day – very soon, too soon - and Sally thinks its better that she watches over him rather than let him find these things out without her there. They are better together rather than apart. But she doesn't know everything, and if she can have help raising him, she'll take it.

"Can he mom?" Percy asks, still a little skittish of this stranger. Sally smiles, tight and glad he asked, but she has to let him or she thinks he'll resent it. Harry is a part of his father's family, and everyday he looks to the pictures of the sea and wonders what she means by _lost_. Harry glances at her, asking her silently to let him stay, and she doesn't think that he'll go away even if she refuses to let him have the room.

"Yes, of course." Sally accepts it, and when a nearly bald man later knocks on the door, she tells him the room is taken and never thinks again of how unpleasantly _human_ he had smelled.

0o0o0

"What's your name?" Percy is still ten, and this has been the question he's asked Harry since he was ten in a _quarter_. He never thought to ask before, but now he won't stop.

Harry rolls eyes the same color green as Percy's, and ruffles black hair. They look so much alike that when Percy goes out with his mom and Harry, no one doubt's that Harry is his dad. Percy's got used to the idea, and he sort of likes it, actually. He just, he doesn't know how to _tell_ Harry that he wouldn't mind if he dated his mother, or married her. It feels right.

The only real problem is that Harry won't tell him his name – not the godly one – and not the entirely mortal one, and if Percy's mom is going to have to change her name, Percy doesn't want to be the only Jackson – so he has to know Harry's name before anything changes.

All of that, of course, Percy doesn't say.

Harry sighs and looks up at the sky as if asking for strength, but Percy knows he isn't because he's seen Harry do that, ask Ouranos himself, the heavenly one, for strength and Percy had never been so frightened in his life, because lightning had bolted down and thunder had roared and black clouds had rolled through the sky and there hadn't been any sun to see by.

It had made the large one-eyed man go away and never come back.

"Isn't Harry a name you know me by?" Harry teases, as if he could forget such a thing.

"Yeah, but, come on, I'll be eleven tomorrow, it's my _birthday_ , I want your name." Harry sits up, rubbing the lightning bolt scar on his brow. It's old and silver against his golden skin and Percy once asked if Ouranos had given it to him, a mark of favor, and Harry had shook his head and told him it was a wizard's killing-curse spell scar, but that being a son of Thanatos had meant he could not be killed – but many things could hurt you, scar you.

"Name's have power, Percy. A son of Hecate knows that best of all. But, if you want my names so badly, I will give them to you – one day, they may save your life. My mortal mother and father named me Harry James Potter, but the gods call me Eleusis." Percy thinks that Percy Potter isn't so bad sounding. He knows though, what it means to Harry that he knows those names, so he thanks him, and goes to bed.

0o0o0

Zeus has found it all out – about his son, Poseidon knows – and there is no _time_.

Not enough of it to save everyone. Sacrifices must be made. Poseidon tosses feathers the color of sunset into the night sky, and watches them fall. Zeus must catch them all; Poseidon knows it – in order to find out where Eleusis went; in order to call him to Olympus.

It's barely enough time to get to where Percy and Sally are on a cruise ship, to give them the "sparkling water" of Lethe to drink in celebration. There is a gold ring about Sally's middle finger, the one they say goes to the heart and she tries to toast to a future Poseidon knows she will never see, not even in dreams.

The green eyes of Thanatos's son flash betrayed gold his way, before Zeus's Harpies snatch him up – and he doesn't resist those hounds of the Olympian king – because they are all the daughters of his Eurynome's sister.

The night sky starts to storm and it is not the doing of Poseidon's brother.

0o0o0

"What are you doing?" It's Hera who finally demands it of Zeus, when she sees the chains that Hephaestus had made going around the wrists of Eleusis. He speaks not a word to any of them, but lays prone at the foot of Zeus's throne, picked and plucked at by Harpies. He simply lays there, so still is Thanatos's son that Hera fears that she will see an ancient god die tonight. None of her generation knows if they can, so they say they can't. Yet his is the generation that would know.

"He's interfered enough, do you not think so? He's turned Poseidon against me, our brother!" Ares sits uneasily at Zeus's side, and Hera hates how he doesn't meet either his mother's or father's eyes, her son has always been a coward that way – keeping his mind to himself. Hera hopes that she has at least one ally here.

"Poseidon does as he wills – do you deny it? Eleusis is not to blame for what our brother does – or does not – do!" Hera looks to Aphrodite, who is older than they, and who doesn't look away from Eleusis. She licks her lips, her eyes feasting upon him, his skin like pale ivory and his golden tail, the black wings cling to his back as if he fears – not without some good reason – that they will be taken off. She looks at him as if she had forgotten what the oldest gods looked like, and loves the sight of him. Hera knows she will get no help from Aphrodite.

"He's been led astray, by trusting in…in… _things_ like him, and not in us!" Zeus sneers down at the black haired god, who doesn't resist – not the chains, not the abuse of Harpies. Hera wishes she knew why.

"He trusted in me, Zeus – not in Eleusis, do not do this – you do not want to! You do not know what you are doing…" Demeter strides across the floor to stand at Eleusis's side, her shadow makes the Harpies flee.

"I do know, Demeter! I am protecting all of us! Do you not hear yourself? Do you not see how he is even now pretending helplessness and yet turning us against one another?" Zeus looks to Apollo, who shies away from his father's grey eyes – to Hermes, who looks at Eleusis and at his staff. The snakes upon it are furious.

Hephaestus holds his wife Aglaia at his side, and looks torn to pain, her hair is just the same black and her eyes are glorious green. Her sister Euphrosyne is wan and sees the similarities just as Aglaia must. Thalia holds tightly to both of her sister's hands, but hides her eyes and her shoulders shake in silent sobs.

Aglaia's four daughters are torn between comforting their aunts, and acting – Demeter sees the way that Eucleia holds tightly to Artemis's hand, and knows that behind her back is a bow with quiver and arrows and around her waist is a knife her father Hephaestus made, and both does she knows the use of. Only that Eucleia does not know Artemis's mind keeps her from acting. Euthenia meets Demeter's eyes, her eyes are green, green just like her mother, her sisters and her aunts all are.

Eupheme licks her lips, but can say nothing, can not beg, or plead, or rage. She is silent, perhaps for the first time in her life. Philophrosyne would go to Eleusis, arms outstretched in welcome, if Euthenia did not hold her against her side.

"He does nothing that I can see." Athena speaks, the truth, simple but something that Zeus can not deny.

"You do not have to see it to know the truth; it's in _his_ – their nature – to sow chaos and disorder, they are born from it – for it!" Eleusis looks at none of them, his eyes shut as if he sleeps, and his breathing calm and even. It is, Demeter knows, unnerving.

"Do we all not share blood, brother? Those traits are in us as well; perhaps we should listen to our better natures and ask him why he acted as he did?" Hestia puts her hand upon Zeus's shoulder, and he listens to her where he would not listen to his wife or daughter.

Hestia with her burning eyes, oldest of them all save for Aphrodite, kneels next to Eleusis and offers him ambrosia and nectar – because Hebe and Ganymede would not.

"Will you speak?" Hestia asks of Eleusis, he opens his eyes to see her and sighs.

"Lo, Hestia, fire bright eyed maid – I am neither thirsty nor hungry, I only ask you to let me go. I have not hurt anyone, and only acted to help Poseidon at his request." Demeter notices that he looks only at Hestia, and she steps forward, but Dionysus holds onto her hand and she does not speak.

Dionysus shakes his head, the light in his eyes quite sane, he is the mad god and knows best when madness flies. That he stops her and says nothing means the worst. It means nothing will stop what will happen – and she can not help. She would only make things worse.

"We have only your words to prove that, and your word is not enough here in holy Olympus." Apollo speaks, but ceases to say more when Artemis shifts away from him, a sneer on her lips. Eucleia grits her teeth at him in a not-smile that shows just how sharp they are.

"Please, Olympians, peace. I meant no harm; do me no harm in turn. Let me go, and this is the last we will meet." Aglaia hisses a word, a word she must have learnt from the womb - for Zeus had never dared let the daughters of Eurynome drink of Lethe. Her sisters echo it, a hissed protest.

" _Father_!" Thalia goes to his side, Euphrosyne to the other, they join hands over his chained ones - Aglaia takes a step forward to follow, and when Hephaestus would hold her back, she gives him such a glare he lets her loose. She claps her hands and her daughters follow her, Philophrosyn running ahead and kissing Eleusis's cheeks and hands and threading her fingers though his feathers as if to protect them.

Artemis lets go of Eucleia's hand, but follows, hovering protectively when she sits down to brush dirt and grim from her grandfather's face. Hestia passes the bowl to Euthenia, and where he would not eat from Hestia's hands, he takes what his granddaughter would give him. Eupheme looks to the Muses, who are the daughters of Zeus but were nursed by her – yet she too settles at Eleusis's side and does not look to them again.

"If you banish our forefather, Zeus, we too will go. We can not now loose him, once we have found him." Eupheme says, proud and clear.

"Than by all means, go! All of you! Yet he will stay here, and suffer for your selfishness." Zeus is in a fury, and Demeter only hopes he does not truly mean what he says. Eleusis, primal king, first king of Olympus raises his head to face him.

"Son of Kronos, are you blind?" Eleusis asks quietly and soft as a hiss.

"What, what do you dare say?" Zeus demands, lightning threading through his fingers.

"You dared claim to swallow up Phanes? You fool, you are blind to gods and goddesses older than yourself and _you all are_ , aren't you?" Eleusis looks about himself, shivering as if they are unnatural in their human shapes.

Zeus frowns at the words, looking about and seeing nothing that does not belong. Yet from the look on the face of Eleusis, he saw more than Zeus could.

"Are you trying to trick us?" Zeus wonders, looking about at the night and wondering how sane ancient gods like Eleusis might be, to see what he can not.

"Oh, how I wish I were. I, I am youngest of the oldest gods you know – is that not so, Aphrodite, Dione's daughter?" Aphrodite nods, smilingly. Her mother had gone to the sea where once a temple of Zeus had once stood, it lay in ruins, and Dione could be found nowhere near. Dione had been a daughter of Oceanus too, and once all the daughters and sons of Tethys and Oceanus he had counted as his own siblings. It was a kinship that had not ended. Eurynome had gone to Oceanus and Tethys, and it had been long since Eleusis had seen her, but he saw her now.

"You can not see your mother, can you? I can, Euphrosyne give her one of my feathers. Stroke it over your eyes, and you will see as I do." Aphrodite's hand trembled as she took it, doing as told to do, and opened them with a flash of gold. There they stood, mingling among the Olympians – those who they had thought lost, those that were older than she – older than Eleusis.

"Tell your father what you see, Aphrodite." Eleusis asked, and she knew without asking him that he saw all that she did.

Nyx was aloft in the air, her beating wings the heart of storms. Moros was at her right hand, his smile promising to damn Zeus. Ker stood between Eleusis and Zeus, hissing words that Aphrodite could feel the meaning of more clearly than she could hear. Thanatos had his arm wrapped about her shoulders, whispering to her in calming tones. Hecate's black hound had sat herself at the witch goddess's side – and Hecate smiled at Aphrodite even as the goddess sat upon Zeus's throne.

Thousands of Oneiroi in the form of bats watched, plotting no kind dreams between them. Hypnos flew at his mother's left hand, twin to Eleusis father in form, his eyes were gold as Thanatos's and half closed, but there was fury in them. Momos mimed in mockery every action Zeus took, Oizys with woe filled eyes, hugged Demeter to her.

There were more, too many for Aphrodite to number or name all the sons and daughters of Nyx, as well as the children of Eris, the air suddenly stifling and tense, she swallowed at once. She saw them – and they saw her in turn.

Her mother Dione who had always been a comfort to Aphrodite stood by the sides of her sisters, Eurynome who looked upon her family in such sorrow that Aphrodite wanted to comfort her first - the Harpies mother, Electra hissed to scold her daughters – each of the goddess daughters of Oceanus and Tethys were more beautiful than the last. They were three thousand of them, and three thousand of their horned river god brothers.

"Zeus, father Zeus, they are here, I see so many of them, I think…they have been here all along, we aren't alone father, please – let him loose." Aphrodite pleads, and Zeus hears her, and heeds.

They let loose Eleusis, who raises his wings and goes away – he takes his daughters, his granddaughters – and all sight of the oldest goes with him. Aphrodite weeps, but there is nowhere they can find him.

0o0o0

Percy Jackson turns twelve, goes to Yancy Acadamy, and has a feather in the treasure box he's had since he was three. He doesn't remember how he got it; it's a strange thing to see, a flight feather that has a black quill that is blue on one side and purple on the other.

There is something wrong with his memory, he knows it when he sees his best friend Grover and knows he's a satyr but doesn't know… _how_ he knows.

Grover asks him how the cruise and the wedding went, but when Percy says there wasn't a wedding – Grover acts as if someone's died.

0o0o0

Paul Blofis comes into Sally's life when she thinks she's going to give up on love, it's the summer of Percy's twelfth year and she know she's running out of time with her son. Paul's been married before, has three grown daughters and four granddaughters and a ex-wife who Sally meets for tea – and who gives Sally Jackson her blessing in marrying Paul – as if they'll need it.

They are all very strange but wonderful people. Sally can't help but feel, when she looks into Paul's green eyes - that by his side is where she belongs.

She doesn't mind the wings he has, how they look like the night sky. Percy likes him because Paul laughs when Percy tells a joke, and if Sally thinks that Percy's jokes get better after meeting Paul – she won't tell her son so.

Paul's daughters and granddaughters take Sally and Percy on a picnic and aren't surprised at all when Sally says Percy's a demigod. She'll never forget what Eupheme says.

"We're all gods here, except you Sally, but you shouldn't fret over that bit, forefather's keen on getting the golden apples of the Hesperides, and they'll make us all equal." Euthenia, another granddaughter, puts her finger to her lips and shushes her sister too late.

The other two granddaughters dissolve into giggles, but Sally doesn't bother to hide her blush, or the engagement ring. Percy rolls his eyes, but knows as long as his mother's happy he'll go along with it all. He just isn't all that sure about the immortality bit.

0o0o0

Paul, at his request, meets Poseidon before Percy does.

"Poseidon. So, like the sea god?" Paul asks, with a tilted head and mischievous green eyes. Poseidon eyes him as if he's part snake, but nods solemn and polite. It's funny that Sally expected Paul to be polite, not playful, but he is what he is and maybe it's the way of lesser gods to be so amused with the elder and more powerful Olympians.

It's not a long while before Sally realizes that just because Paul is a god she's never the name of and doesn't think important in comparison to the more popular Olympians that that is how the Olympians think of gods older than themselves.

"Yes, exactly like that, sir." Poseidon says, meeting those green eyes - his own widen when they wink. Paul curls an arm about Poseidon's shoulders, it's almost funny to see, a slender young man holding a taller and broader one steady and leading him away.

"Alright, let's go see what Percy thinks of you." Paul's tone is teasing, but Poseidon doesn't relax an inch until he hears Percy talking – all at once – to all four of Paul's granddaughters and Grover and Nico. Grover sees Paul for the first time and smiles like he's missed his favorite food.

Nico sees Paul for the first time, sees all of him, and pales.

"Sir!" He squeaks as a greeting, and doesn't speak up again until Percy bullies him into telling just what god Paul is. Percy Jackson goes to his mom and tells her about the water called Lethe, and the spring called Mnemosyne – and how Nico's gone to get them their memories back.

It's Percy's birthday, but he gives Paul gifts – the first when Sally calls him Harry, the second when Percy calls him dad.


End file.
